Lebanon rockets land near border with Israel

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Rockets were fired toward Israel from southern Lebanon early yesterday and a Lebanese security official said they landed just metres short of the border.

A statement from the United Nations office in south Lebanon said three rockets were fired from the Naqoura area and that UN officials were investigating. The Lebanese security official said there were four rockets.

The Lebanese official said three of the rockets landed on the outskirts of the border town of Naqoura while one fell in the Mediterranean sea off the coastal town. Authorities were investigating who was behind the attack, the official said.

The militant Hizbollah group was checking the report, according to a spokesman.

Major Sharon Feingold, an Israeli army spokeswoman, said the rockets had been fired at an Israeli naval vessel patrolling Israeli territorial waters.

She accused Lebanon and Syria of harbouring "terrorists" responsible for repeated attacks on Israeli targets, including yesterday's rocket fire. She declined to say whether Israel believed Hizbollah had carried out the attack.

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"The threat is that they are operating under the sponsorship of both the Lebanese government and the Syrians, and endangering Israelis."

Hizbollah, which led the guerrilla warfare that drove Israeli occupation forces from southern Lebanon four years ago, usually launches attacks at the disputed Chebaa Farms, an area where Israeli forces remain that is far from Naqoura.

In the past, radical Palestinian guerrilla groups also have fired rockets into northern Israel from Lebanon. The last time that happened was March 23 when Israeli helicopter gunships fired on guerrillas who were launching rockets toward Israel from Wadi Sluqi, about 10 kilometres north of the Israeli border. Two guerrillas were killed and a third wounded in the air raid.

The guerrillas belonged to the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -General Command headed by Ahmed Jibril. They apparently wanted to avenge Israel's assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas.

While Lebanon's government strongly supports the Lebanese Hizbollah, it has opposed Palestinian guerrillas using southern Lebanon to attack Israel. Palestinian attacks in the 1970s and early 1980s brought harsh Israeli retaliations, including two full-scale invasions.